Sunday, November 25, 2012

Palestinans Pathetic; Israelis Shmucks

I hope this is not tongue-in-cheek:-

... this is a fact. The Palestinian
leadership, with a couple of happy new exceptions like Fayyad, is just
pathetic or worse. The Palestinians are among the world's most scorned
and dispossessed people, but they've been saddled with the worst
liberation movement in the history of liberation movements.

First
and foremost, if they'd been a nonviolent movement, they'd have had
their state 20 years ago. No understanding at all of either the Jewish
or the American conscience, which resists "resistance" at all costs but
melts at the first sight of a person standing before a tank holding a
rose.

Second,
the PA was until recently just hideously corrupt. Arafat and his
cronies got away with stealing so much money from those poor people.
Completely unconscionable.

Third,
they appear to have no understanding of why they're really losing.
They're losing because American public opinion will never be on their
side. Americans will always back the Jews. To Americans, Jews are nice,
successful people. They're funny. Jerry Seinfeld. Who's gonna be against
Jerry Seinfeld's people?...

... Palestinians? Yes, as Bill Clinton said,
the only Palestinians he knows are college professors and doctors. In
Clinton's experience and in my more limited one, Palestinian Americans
are a high-achieving and very warm people. But all most Americans know
is, they're a bunch of terrorists. Palestinian leadership needs to take
that seriously and change it.
None
of this is meant as a defense of Israeli leadership. They're schmucks,
too, or worse. So I don't really like either side very much, in terms of
their leaders I mean, which is why I don't write about this very often.
But I do know that if Palestinians moved to nonviolence and undertook a
smart campaign to improve their image here, they'd turn things around
on a dime.

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.